Our analyses revealed that these lincRNAs display many features consistent with functionality, contrasting prior claims that intergenic transcription is primarily the product of transcriptional noise [12]. In sum, our findings corroborate recent reports of pervasive transcription across the human genome and demonstrate that intergenic transcription results in the production of a large number of previously unknown lincRNAs. We provide this vastly expanded lincRNA annotation set as an important resource for the study of intergenic functional elements in human health and disease.
